A/N: I'm really on a roll! Heres the next chapter!
I don't own Mass Effect
Fate Worse than Death
"I'm starting to think that your turning my ship into a family vacation." said Shepard. He and Chase stood in the mess hall as they saw Kolyat sitting at a table talking with a few of the other crew members. "He has a right to get to know his dad more. And Thane doesn't have much time left, even less if the Omega 4 Relay goes to hell." the freelancer replied. Shepard sighed, although the two newest additions to the ship weren't that bad. Lia was almost as good as Tali when it came to mechanics and engineering. And Kolyat could be just as good as his father one day when fully trained. That, and the kid could hack a system almost as fast as EDI could.
Chase smiled thinking back to when Thane had brought his son on the Normandy. At first it was to show him around while his father told him about the up and coming suicide mission. But Kolyat threw him a curve ball. He wanted to be trained like his dad, to rid the universe of evil individuals. The true way of the assassin. And he wanted to see more of the universe. Shepard had allowed it, under the stipulation that he, Lia, and Chase's daughters were dropped off someplace safe before they went after the Collector base. So now the Normandy had another Drell on board, and Kolyat had no problem staying in the same room as his father.
"Your a good person boss man, and you know full well everyone pulls thier own weight around here." said Chase. Shepard nodded with a smirk, "I never second guess my decisions Chase." He walked away toward the elevator to head up to the CIC. Chase walked over to Kolyat, "You fittin in okay?" The young Drell gave a light smile, "Sort of. Everyone seems friendly enough." Chase smirked, "Trust me, you couldn't find better friends anywhere else."
As if on que, Lia walked into the mess hall. "Chase, how are you?" she asked pleasantly. "Doin good. I wanna introduce you to our newest member here." he said motioning toward Kolyat. "Lia'Vael nar Ulany, this is Kolyat Krios. Thane's son. Kolyat this is my good friend Lia." The young Drell looked up and seemed to stare at Lia for a few moments, at the same time Lia was rudding her hands together. "Its nice to meet you." said Kolyat smiling. "Likewise." said Lia. Chase looked between them oddly for a moment before realization dawned on him. "Well, I think I'll be leaving you two to get to know each other." he said casually walking off.
Rounding the corner heading toward the elevator, Chase ran into Thane who was coming out of Life Support. "Yo Thane. Hows everything going with you and Kolyat?" asked the freelancer. "We're making some progress. Its slow. But I'm not complaining." said Thane with a ghost of a smile. Chase leaned back and peered into the mess hall and grinned, "Well your boy seems to be getting along just fine." Thane looked with him and saw that Lia had joined Kolyat at the table and they were talking and laughing with each other. "Seems they have formed a bond simply by meeting." said the assassin. "That they have. See you around Thane." Chase said getting into the elevator.
The shuttle rumbled as it slowly set down on the ground. The hatch opened and Shepard, Chase and Jack stepped out into the light rain. Where they landed was nothing more than a round hole made of stone with an entrence to a mine shaft right infront of them. When Shepard recieved a message that a mining operation suddently went dark, being the good guy he was, had Joker swing by the planet to check it out. But two things were bothering Chase at the moment. The first was that he and Jack still hadn't spoken to each other, the tension between them was still palpable. The other reason...that ice cold feeling of dread was back.
"Shepard, something really, and I mean really, doesn't feel right here." said Chase activating the incineration bullets on his SMGs. "I have to agree with him, this...I can't explain it." said Jack, her eyes darting back and forth. Shepard looked around them, other than the rain there was nothing but silence. Almost as if...there was no life around them at all. "We have to try and find those miners. Just stay vigilant, I don't like this either."
The team entered the mine, without the rain around them the silence was almost sufficating. The mine tunnel was so well lit that you could see, but cast shadows along the walls. They searched around the small chamber they entered for anything useful. "I got something here." said Jack. Chase and Shepard walked over to her. It was a datapad, but what startled them were the bloodstain finger prints on it. "Theres and audio message on it." said Jack. "Play it." encouraged Chase.
They started the audio message, while in the shadows down the tunnel, something shuffled toward them.
"Listen...god...Listen to me! If your getting this get then hell out of here! Its not safe they're everywhere!" There was moaning in the back ground. "...Oh no...god no! NO! AHHHHHHH-" The message cut off there. Chase felt his stomach drop, "What the hell?" he wondered out loud. Suddently the team heard moaning, they spun around weapons drawn. In the light of the tunnel a lone Husk came at them, feet scraping the floor with a low moan emitting from its synthetic throat. Shepard fired his pistol hitting the Husk in the forehead dropping it to the floor like dead weight.
"Now we know what happened to the miners." said Jack. 'Commander, I'm picking up strange energy readings from below you. Initial scans indicate that its not human made.' EDI said over the radio. "We have to check out that source. And we could find survivors along the way." said Shepard as he started down the tunnel, Chase and Jack right behind him.
The tunnels were quiet, only the sounds of their footfalls echoed around the stone. "All this silence is starting to bug me." said Jack. They entered another chamber that lead down farther into the planet. Chase kept his eyes open, he had a strong feeling they weren't alone. He looked back the way they came...and his breath stopped.
"Commander!" he shouted bringing his weapons to bare. Behind them a group of over 10 Husks had gathered and started sprinting at them. The team immediately opened fire, their bullets tore through the synthetic 'zombies' like they were paper. Just as the last of the Husks fell dead and they started to reload, more moaning echoed through the chamber. "Aw shit." said Chase seeing more Husks crawl out of holes in the walls. "Move!" Shepard yelled as they bolted down the tunnel.
Everywhere they went, no matter what tunnel, there were Husks and the occasional Abomination all over the place. "This is crazy! Where the fuck are they all coming from!" exclaimed Chase when he shot an Abomination causing it to explode and take out the Husks around it. "Hell if I know, just keep shooting!" yelled Shepard emptying a whole thermal clip from his assault rifle. Jack had been firing shockwave after shockwave, throwing the Husks around like ragdolls.
After what felt like an eternity of shooting and running. The Husks suddently stopped coming. "This is bullshit." said Jack reloading her shotgun. "EDI are we close to the source?" asked Shepard. 'It is roughly 20 meters down the tunnel infront of you and 10 meters into the planet.' replied EDI. "Lets get this over with. This night of the living dead stuff is freaking me out." said Chase as they started moving again. "All those people..." Chase whispered, "I don't think we're gonna find anyone alive down here Shepard." "Hes right boss. We would have found at least one non-half-machine person here." said Jack.
Shepard nodded, "Still, we can't let that energy source exist. If it is what created all of these Husks, then we need to destroy it." "I just hope we got enough ammo for the job." Chase said going through his supplies, "I think I'm down to 60% here." "Time your shots. Try attacking hand to hand if you can, and use your biotics sparingly. I don't want either one of you to over exert yourselves." said Shepard. "Don't have to worry about that." said Jack grinning.
They followed the tunnel into a cavern that was bigger than all of the past ones. They stood ontop of a ledge that sloped down to the ground floor where an old structure stood with crumbling walls. "Ten creds says thats were the source is." said Chase. They heard an all too familiar moaning as Husks started to pour out of the structure. "Dammit! Engage!" yelled Shepard.
The team opened fire on the Husks as they started to run up the slope at them. Chase launched a biotic blast sending the ones that got to close into the wall of the cavern. Spent thermal clips started to fall around them as they took turns reloading, but the time the Husks stopped coming there were dozens around them. "I'm almost out of ammo." said Jack. "Same here." said Chase. "Same goes for me. Save what you got left if you can." said Shepard as he lead them down the slope and into the structure.
In the ancient building, in the room farthest away from the entrence stood a large device that nearly took up the whole room. Its sleek, dark purple coating was a large standout in comparison to the crumbling walls around it. "Safe to say thats not a natural rock formation." said Chase looking up at it. Shepard looked around the room and saw a lot of equipment. And among them were various explosive containers and mining charges. "We can blow it up. I can rig an explosive to take it out." he said to the biotics. 'An explosion inside the cavern would also cause an earthquake which would cave in the mine.' EDI commented. "So we destroy the thing and kill all the Husks inside at the same time. But we gotta get out of here before we get crushed too." said Chase.
The team heard loud moaning coming from the cavern behind them, "Looks like they won't let us go quietly. Fine by me." said Jack hefting her shotgun. "You two, head to the entrence and hold them off. I'll get the bomb set up and join you shortly." said Shepard. "You got it boss." said Chase as he and Jack jogged back to the main doorway. Ontop of the ledge they saw dozens of Husks coming down at them. "Well...this outta be fun." said Chase taking out his sniper rifle. "Bet ya I can kill more." said Jack. "So she is talking to me again, guess I'm making progress." "Same stakes? Your on." said Chase sighting the first Husk and pulling the trigger.
Husks fell all around, synthetic bodies piling up as the two biotics kept the pressure on. Chase had switched to his pistol having run out of thermal clips for his rifle. After a while the Husks managed to get to the cavern floor, "Not a chance!" Chase exclaimed launching them across the room with a shockwave. Jack fired several of her own sending bodies flying. She pulled her shotgun but it clicked when she pulled the trigger. "Shit! I'm out!" "Here! Make it count!" Chase yelled tossing her one of his SMGs
Chase shot another Husk in the head when they heard Shepard run up behind them. "Go! We got less than 2 minutes!" Not wanting to stick around, the team ran as fast as their feet could take them. Pushing past the Husks as they reached out with their arms to grab at them. "Fuck! Get off me!" Chase and Shepard spun around and saw a Husk had fallen ontop of her pinning her to the ground. "Jack!" Chase exclaimed running up and kicking the Husk hard enough to send its head flying off back down the tunnel. "Com'mon we gotta go!" Chase said helping her up and they started running again.
They made it through the tunnels and out of the main entrence just as the ground shook violently from the explosion under their feet. Behind them the tunnel shook and collapsed in on itself, sealing it perminently. "Lets...Lets not do that again." said Chase bent over breathing heavily. "Agreed. Lets get back to the Normandy." said Shepard as they stepped onto the shuttle.
They got back to the Normandy with no difficulty and boarded the elevator. The lift stopped at the crew deck first, "I'll catch you guys later. Oh and Shep, next time you pick a somewhat 'easy' mission. Please make sure its not crawling with synthetic zombies. Not that I'm complaining about letting those people rest in peace." Shepard smiled lightly, "I''ll keep that in mind Chase. See you around." Chase walked toward his quarters and stepped inside. The girls weren't there, "Must be with either been with Samara or Lia." he thought as he got his armor off.
Just when his helmet was set down on his desk, the door to the observation deck opened. Chase turned and was surprised to see Jack standing in the doorway. "We need to talk."
A/N: A bit of a cliffhanger. I bet your wondering why I added Kolyat to the Normandy, well its because not only did I want to make more of a good father/son connection with him and Thane. And he, Lia, and the girls will have an important role later in the story. Trust me, it'll be good. Review!